The Perfect Storm

We did not sleep much in the end since the wind picked up fast and me and Marjolijn started rolling on top of each other all night. At first its funny but after a while you just want to kick the other out of bed as soon as possible…
At 06:00 we first make the head sail smaller because there is to much wind. We try to stay out of the center of the stormfront (L), which has huricane power, by heading south east. Not to much though because we still want to do the periodic trawls without to much distance in between and we need to be in the Azores in time.

The first few hours we have a lot of fun together, laughing hard with every new wave that washes overboard and thanking baby-Jesus for hitting us in the face, but around 10:00 Lam and Joel start to become sea sick again. One after the other they end up puking over the port side of the boat. After they emptied their stomach their heads drop down and stay glued on deck like drunken sailors in a come. Although we try to avoid getting into the stormfront, it seems to be getting to us. By 14:00 we reach windspeed up to 40 knots, with peaks up to 47 knots (87 km). The waves reach hights of 4 meters and hustle everything around on the boat. Every simple thing, including drinking and pissing, become huge adventures full of dangers and unexpected turns. Most people stay in bed for the rest of the day, trying to keep their guts in place. At dinner the captain tells us we are up for more of the same for the coming 24 hours. We have watch again from 22:00 to 02:00 but will probably not sleep much before or after anyway. The screen with the weather prediction looks frightening red… let’s hope this is the worst we are getting.

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Plasticreef.com is a website containing information about the growing sculpture of artist Maarten Vanden Eynde, but also gives a brief summary of the history of plastic and offers a platform for various organisations and institutes working with plastic (production, collection, recycling and research) aiming to find solutions for emerging plastic problems.